My most recent trip to Hong Kong was awesome. It was first time in over twenty years that my mom, dad, sister and I were there together. Plus, Cheryl brought her husband Cameron, and the kids, Maia and Dylan. Plus I convinced Shefali to come along. So, my parents flew in from Taos, Cheryl, Cam and the kids flew in from SF and Shef and I – a little more spur of the moment – flew in from NYC, and we all managed to meet up in Hong Kong to visit my Grandmother – whom we refer to as Popo because she’s my moms’ mom.
Now due to the impromptu purchase of the the tickets I only had about five days in HK and Shef who came a day later only had four. But as you would expect those few days were filled with eating. In fact one of the best and worst things about Hong Kong is I’m really never hungry there. You begin the day eating and you end the day eating and it’s all delicious. Eating becomes kind of like an endurance sport. In the midst of eating one meal you’re already making plans for the next trying to mentally psych yourself to digest faster so you’ll have room for the next onslaught of delicious food. Or maybe it’s just my family.
Anyway, I was a little too busy eating to film anything, but I did take some photos when I remembered, so what follows is day by day food chronicle of my trip to Hong Kong. Like I said, sometimes it’s hard to focus on the blog when one is stuffing one’s face so inevitably there were some meals left out. I apologize. Alright please enjoy. (check out more nonfood pix of HK from me and Cheryl.)
(Day 0)
Ok, no pictures of this, but I just wanted to share with you all that I got my relatively cheap ticket on Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s official airline. And while their seats leave a little to be desired (I’m convinced that because they’re an airline out of Asia the seats have a little less room because they’re housing the ostensibly smaller Asian ass. Plus the new seats instead instead of really reclining, just kind of slide down so you end up more slouched in your seat when you ought to be reclining. The one positive of this is the seat in front of you can’t suddenly come down in your lap while you’re enjoying you’re meal. Which brings me to my original point. For airplane food, Cathay Pacific’s kind of kicks ass. I quite enjoyed both meals (first meal had braised pork Euro style then had braised pork Asian style) and the snacks in between as I watched about four movies in a row on my personal video on demand service.
Hong Kong
Day 1
Mom, Popo and Sis enjoy dim sum. This is the place where I always go with Popo when I visit her.
The fam enjoys pastries and milk tea after dim sum.
Milk tea + egg custard tart = bliss
Dinner: Jook (rice porridge) with fish, pork and preserved egg) and sides of fish cakes, turnips and vegetable
Day 2
We're about to have a northern style breakfast of hot soy milk and assorted starchy items. Notice the wall menu? Practical and attractive.
Fat sesame scallion pancakes and noodles
Banquet Lunch: Notice the biggest lazy Susan I've ever seen. I broke out in a sweat just trying to move it.
A delicious appetizer of chicken and jellyfish
Steamed eggplant with a wonderful miso and rice wine vinegar sauce served cold. So delicate and refreshing.
Banquet Dinner: Yet another banquet meal with Cousin Karen at the Hong Kong Golf Club. Surprisingly (or maybe not) awesome food.
Mmm fried shrimp: crispy, salty, fried and literally bursting with shrimpiness
Gindo pai gwut: deep fried pork spare ribs in a sweet and sour sauce. These used to be my favorite as a kid but I kind of grew out of the at times cloying sweet and sour sauce. But these ones were not so sweet or sour. In fact, they were perfect.
Deep fried lotus root cakes. I think this is my new favorite way to eat lotus root.
See yao gai: soy sauce chicken
Clay pot fish: I think it was clay pot. In any case, it was delicious!
tTeem bun (dessert): from left to right - glutinous rice with roasted black sesame paste in a sweet ginger syrup and sweet pumpkin and coconut milk
Day 3
Mom and Dad eating lunch number two a Taigoo Sing Mall food court. Mom eats noodles. Dad eats dumplings. Bear in mind, this was about an hour after having already eaten lunch at this not so great Asian fusion in Central.
Cendol: an Indonesian and Malaysian dessert of shaved ice, sweet red bean, palm sugar, coconut milk and green rice noodles (because why not?)
My niece and I dig the cendol. Obviously she has good taste.
Popo, Auntie Betty, cousins Geoffrey and Cynthia after another huge banquet meal.
Day 4
Lama Island: Here's the view as you hike down to the seafood restaurants
fresh razor clams in black bean sauce: man this shit was good!
steamed grouper: this fish was alive about 15 minutes before...
My buddy Gene and his dog "Fat Boy"
Day 5
Cheurng Jow Island: where my dad used spend the summers with his grandmother when he was a boy.
The family takes a moment before hiking back down to town.
Need I say more? Beef Curry flavored potato chips bought at the local Circle K as we waited for the ferry back to HK. They really did taste like curry. This is why I love Asia.
So that’s all the food photos. The last meal we had in HK was a Shanghainese meal at the local mall. And as expected it was really good. You’ll just have to believe me because there aren’t any photos of that one. All in all it was a great trip obviously because of the food, but also because I got to share so many meals with my family. Really, it makes everything taste so much better.
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Hi uncle sup! saw the picture of us eating cendol! lub it!